The crowd loved him, and he loved the crowd. In the final, he put in a near-perfect performance, beating top contender Ai Xinliang 149-148.

“When he shot his last arrow, I knew I was going to hit a ten,” Matt claimed.

And he did. He shot a ten to secure the title.

“I just don’t know. That little bird said, hey, you’re here now. It’s your time. You’ve practiced forever. You’ve got your family here to watch.”

The crowd cheered and he celebrated in his own way – jumping, screaming, running across the stage. Two hours earlier he had nearly been eliminated, but his last arrow was upgraded from a nine to a 10 to start a shoot-off.

“The last four years I have never thought about winning a gold medal,” he said.

“It was all about having fun and making memories. It’s a pretty good memory, right?” Matt smiled, catching a glimpse of the medal around his neck.

The family saw him reach the top and Hollywood star Jackie Chan described him as “amazing”. Everything was geared towards making Matt’s farewell Paralympics unforgettable. Memories were what he wanted.

“When I went to my first match, I really had to fight back the tears because I was able to perform in front of my family and they were cheering, knowing that they had my back no matter what.”